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Agriculture and Farms

An orchard where rows of flowering native plants have been planted between the trees.
When It Comes To Sustainable Agriculture, Food Industry Associations Are Powerful Influencers
On-farm perennial habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects. These fall blooming plants include black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and goldenrod (Solidago spp.).
How To Control Garden Pests While Supporting Pollinators
A tractor with a seed-planting attachment drives through a field planting corn seeds behind it as it travels.
The EPA's New Strategies to Protect Endangered Species from Pesticides Need Improvement
A view of the 2 hedgerows in springtime. The native plant line short on the left is hugged by burlap strips and the taller Siberian pea-shrub is tall against the red wooden fence on the right.
Living Snow Fence Helps Both Crops and Pollinators in the Semi-Arid West
Four people, two white and two black, holding shovels and smiling while standing in front of several freshly planted native flowers. Behind them tarps protect a small plot of crops.
Inspiration for Pollinator Conservation: Habitat Kits for Urban Farms and Gardens
A stream winding past a livestock pasture. The stream is surrounded by planted tree saplings and small shrubs so that the bare pasture does not reach the stream.
Inspiration for Pollinator Conservation: Protecting Waterways with Pollinator Habitat
A hedgerow planted to provide habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects on a farm. All the species in the hedgerow were chosen because they also provide fruit, flowers, or some other product that is edible.
Inspiration for Pollinator Conservation: Hedgerow Habitat on Farms
A grassland covered in colorful wildflowers
Inspiration for Pollinator Conservation: Wildflowers on Rangelands
A plastic container of blueberries at a grocery store. The packaging is labeled with the Bee Better Certified seal.
More Retailers Are Requiring Produce to be Certified as Pollinator-Friendly
A bumble bee perched on a light purple flower, amidst other greenery. This species, the rusty patched bumble bee, is at risk due to widespread pesticide use.
What We Can Learn From Québec’s Success With Regulating Pesticide-Treated Seed
Several cows grazing in a field. Instead of introduced grasses, this field is full of native prairie plants
Planting Native Prairies Makes for Grazing Pastures that Support Both Cows and Pollinators
Group of Xerces staff and community members posing for a picture
Cape Cod Town Transforms Mining Pit to Community Farm
U School garden in front of the school, which is painted in murals
High School Students Depave a Parking Lot to Plant a Garden
white clover as cover crop
Pollinator Friendly Cover Cropping for Vegetable Farmers
Volunteers weeding in a People's Garden in the Bronx
Planting for Bees, Butterflies, and Beauty in the Bronx
Several people planting seedlings in a prepared site in front of a building
Love for the Land Inspires Pollinator Habitat Conservation Across the Driftless Area
Yellow banded bumble bee on a garden rose on a cranberry farm
Making Space for Native Bees on a Wisconsin Cranberry Farm
Catchment habitat designed to capture nutrient and sediment runoff, like this flowering prairie strip at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge in Iowa, may be more ubiquitously contaminated with pesticides used in nearby crop fields than other types of habitat in agricultural landscapes. (Photo: Lynn Betts, NRCS/SWCS, Flickr)
Part 2: How research about pesticide risks informs our efforts to rewild agricultural landscapes
Recent research from UC Davis found that the abundant local flowering resources provided by field margin wildflower plantings helped to sustain bumble bee queen production even at sites with higher pesticide risk - Olam Orchards_CA_Pollinator Habitat_JKC_XS
Part 1: How research about pesticide risks informs our efforts to rewild agricultural landscapes 
Community garden in Omaha NE. Squash flowers in front of an apartment complex. Photo: Jennifer Hopwood, Xerces Society
Investing in pollinator conservation through urban agriculture
Cover crop blooms in an orchard (Photo: Xerces Society)
More Than Food: A New Roadmap for Agriculture
Buckwheat smother crop in Iowa (Photo: Sarah Foltz Jordan/ Xerces Society)
Tips for Organic Site Preparation Before You Plant
Flowers bloom in the foreground of a Pennsylvania orchard with hills in the distance. Photo: Kelly Gill/ Xerces Society
Intrinsically Linked: Why Climate-Smart Agriculture Must Not Neglect Biodiversity
White oak showing symptoms of herbicide drift injury in mid April. Credit: Martin Kemper, Prairie Rivers Network
Herbicide drift: How to monitor and report damage to wild plants
Monarch larvae on showy milkweed, roadside in Idaho.
Xerces Introduces New Searchable Systemic Insecticides Reference
Year 3 hedgerow with fruiting Toyon (aka Christmas Holly) (Heteromeles arbutifolia) and flowering Coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis) in Colusa, CA, November 2021. Credit: Anna Murray/ Xerces Society
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest - December 2021
This photograph shows a flowering meadow on the edge of an orchard. The flowers include tall dark-purple flowers, lower growing pale-purple flowers, and darker pink blooms beyond. In the distance can be seen green forest covering gently sloping hills. The sky has white and pale gray clouds.
Creating Wildflower Meadows from Scratch or by Simply Changing Mowing Regimes
A photograph of a farm, looking along a recently planted hedgerow. The hedgerow has three rows of bushy plants that stretch into the distance. Many of the plants are in bloom, showing yellow, white, pink, and purple flowers. To the left is a pond, reflecting the blue sky. To the right is a gravel road and apple trees.
Businesses Support the “Little Things that Run the World”
Two women stand beside a farm field. One has a black shirt and pale brown pant. The other black pants and a pale brown shirt and is wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carries an orange bag. A strip of brown grass stretches down the edge of the field. Beside the field is an orchard of trees with white trunks and green leaves. In the distance is a green barn and houses with red roofs, and beyond them hills rising toward the blue sky.
The Value of Conservation Planning
A women wearing a shite shite and a straw hat stands in a meadow, with plants and yellow flowers up to her waist. Behind her a line of tall trees with green leaves stretches into the distance.
Coming Home: A Woman Landowner’s Conservation Calling
A farm landscape showing brown stubble of corn in fields surrounding a wetland pond. The water appears dark blue, reflecting the gray clouds in the blue sky.
Insecticide Seed Treatments Threaten Midwestern Waterways
A photo that shows a cross section of soil on the side of a pit. The soil is dark brown and crumbling into lumps. The upper part of the photo shows the pale brown straw of the crop growing in the field, and the scuffed brown boots of a farmer.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – August 2021
A view inside a large cage made of very fine, white-colored netting. The netting is held up by wooden posts and sags between the supports. Through the center of the photo is a black band, where two sheets of netting are being stitched together. The netting is protecting blueberry bushes, which have green leaves.
Local Pest Challenges Spur Local Solutions in New Hampshire
A flower bed beside a street in a downtown. The flowers include purple asters and yellow coneflowers. Behind are large mirrored glass windows of a store, which reflect the buildings opposite.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – July 2021
A clear plastic container of blueberries on a kitchen counter beside a breakfast bowl containing cereal and fruit. The blueberry container has the black-and-white Bee Better Certified label
Helping Bees by Growing a Better Food System
A small group of young men and women work with shovels and other tools to care for a hedgerow
Xerces Society and the NRCS: 17 Years of Conservation Partnership
Four people stand behind a table laden with trays of small plants. They are holding plants and "pollinator habitat" signs ready for a day of hard work.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – June 2021
A bottle of vinegar lies on a table beside a bowl full of slices of peach and cherry tomatoes
Bee Better Certified: One Acre at a Time
A patch of pollinator habitat on a farm in Iowa is a mass of yellow, white, and purple flowers
Walmart Commits to Bee Better Certified and Other Measures for Pollinators
This mix of wildflower seeds are many different shapes and shades of brown and gray, and some have tuts of pale hair
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – April 2021
Well wrapped against the winter weather, two people walk across a snow-covered field of stubble scattering wildflower seed
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – February 2021
Pale pink and purple ball-shaped flower heads of common milkweed stand out against the green foliage of this habitat strip beside a farm field
Ethanol Plant Causes Severe Pesticide Contamination in Nebraska
A landscape with a mass of yellow-flowered goldenrod in the foreground with dark green conifer forest behind
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest - November 2020
"Blooming pollinator habitat between rows of almond orchards in California"
Xerces Urges California to Step Up for Pollinators
Two women in grey and red shirts stand in front of a colorful mural that shows flowers and insects at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – October 8, 2020
A group of farmers stand between a crop field and flowering meadow listening to a presenter speaking about how to plan habitat for insects.
A group of farmers stand between a crop field and flowering meadow listening to a presenter speaking about how to plan habitat for insects.
On-farm habitat for beneficial insects provides multiple benefits
The green leaves of this milkweed plant are badly curled and distorted due to contamination by the herbicide dicamba
New Report: How Dicamba Herbicides are Harming Cultivated and Wild Landscapes
Pink blooms of prairie crocus contrast against the brown grass
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – August 6, 2020
Pieces of a puzzle are being assembled on a dark, wooden table. A hand moves the pieces.
Sowing Uncertainty: What We Do and Don’t Know about the Planting of Pesticide-Treated Seed
A fuzzy, round-bodied, orange bee perches on a pale purple flower.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest - February 2020
A long line of people of diverse ages, genders, and races are all sporting bright yellow and black-striped bee outfits in an outdoor festival setting.
Evolution in Attitudes Leads to Greater Interest in Pollinator Conservation
On a sunny day with blue sky, five people stand talking together in the foreground of a beautiful landscape. Behind them is a pear orchard, and beyond is the snow-covered, triangular form of Mt. Hood.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest - January 2020
A grassy field ringed by trees bursts with color. It is populated by many different flower species.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – December 2019
This is a two-part image. On the left is a dry, arid, agricultural landscape with a lot of bare dirt. On the right is the same landscape, but with a flowering hedgerow that recedes into the distance, and a small, gray butterfly perched on a small, thin branch with flowers in the foreground.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – November 2019
Colorful blooms of blue, red, and yellow blanket the rows between newly-planted saplings.
Starting from Scratch: New Hampshire Farm Dives into Conservation Biological Control
In this landscape image, rows of green, leafy trees are on the left, and on the right are blossoming cover crops of various colors. There is also blue sky and puffy clouds to round out this idyllic scene.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – October 2019
People are crouched, planting native species in a new beetle bank in Iowa.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – August 2019
A diagram shows various interacting stressors that can impact bees and other pollinators, including fungicides.
New Xerces Fact Sheet Takes a Deeper Look at Fungicides and Their Effects on Pollinators
A plastic clamshell of blueberries bears the Bee Better Certified seal, as well as a label that says "Oregon grown" and the California Giant label.
Arriving in Stores: Bee Better Certified Blueberries
An assortment of colors among a flowering hedgerow add life to an arid landscape.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – June 2019
A monarch and a goldenrod soldier beetle share a pale purple thistle.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – May 2019
A thick bed of bright green clover blooms with red and white flowers amid rows of almond trees.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – April 2019
Red-orange poppies pepper a verdant hillside.
Bee Better Certified Engages the Almond Industry
A field of sunflowers bordering a field.
Bee Better Certified: An Evolving Standard
A tractor and some other farm equipment in the background are dwarfed by blooming plants in the foreground of this photo of an arid agricultural area.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – January 2019
Long-horned bee collecting pollen from a bright yellow and red plains coreopsis.
Pollinators and the 2018 Farm Bill
Red coreopsis flowers stand out against a blue sky.
Businesses Aligning with the Life that Sustains Us
Prairie grasses and flowers are illuminated beautifully by low, golden sunlight.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – December 2018
A fuzzy bee with yellow and black stripes, as well as a rust-colored patch on its back, holds tightly to a pink flower.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – November 2018
A view from above shows the expanse of tide flats.
Pesticide Program Update: Bee City USA, Treated Seeds, and Protecting Washington’s Waters
Closeup of beautiful, layered pink and white petals.
Pollinator Conservation Program Digest – October 2018
Red-and-green apples are clustered on a tree branch.
Celebrate Invertebrates During National Apple Month
A pollen-covered bee sits deep inside a bright-orange squash flower.
Can Robobees Solve the Pollination Crisis?
Klickitat Canyon Vineyard - in the foreground are brightly colored blooms of arrowleaf balsamroot and lupine, and in the background are rows of vines.
From the Field: A Visit to Klickitat Canyon Vineyard
A marsh that is reflecting the deep blue of the sky is ringed by powerlines and neighborhoods.
Scientists Urge Action to Protect Waters from Neonicotinoid Insecticides
The Sran Family Orchards logo
Sran Family Orchards: The First Bee Better Certified Farm
american river
New Fact Sheet Highlights Risks to California’s Surface Water from Insecticides
Group photo of pollinator team staff gathered in Minnesota for a training event
Xerces’ Pollinator Team Grows, Again
2016 neonic report
New Report: How Neonicotinoids Can Kill Bees
apple
Celebrate Apples by Celebrating Their Pollinators!
squash bee
Delectable Native Plants Attract a Very Special Crowd
 

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